How to Determine the Veracity of an Email CC:

Here's a quick personal exercise to conduct before you send your next e-mail with multiple cc:'s (or 'carbon copies'). If the subject was important enough to copy dozens of people, would you call a meeting, get them in the same room, and then say your piece?

To wit: You wish to bring someone's attention to the fact that a particular piece of research material was not brought to a previous meeting.

To: Doug Von Modrigal Sales Representative

From: Theresa De Snorph, General Sales Manager

cc: Bill Perkins Vice President, Genevieve de Mornay Division Retail Sales Chief, L. Vaughn

Philkins Terminal Velocity Supervisor, Sharon D'Espirit Telephonic Services, Ted Mail

Room Guy, Sharon Marin The Coffee Company, All Staff

Doug, I invite you to please join me in the boardroom this afternoon at 2 p.m. as I ask you about the dispensation of the most recent research report on T1 Markets. As you'll note from the cc: list a number of our colleagues will be in attendance as I ask the question, which while asked in this note will also require an e-mail response and a meeting with all in attendance, whether or not they have a vested interest in the results. I am positive that this note will lay the groundwork for any further investigations into this matter.

Regards

Theresa

So figure the average cost of an hours staffing in a 50 person business is, say, $4,000 an hour`and you gathered all these people in a room for the time it took to address the issue.

E-mail has made it easy for us to be indiscriminate in the way we include people in the communication process. Everyone will attend the meeting, just in case they`re affected in some way - because we no longer have the filters to prioritize. The time cost is increasing every day.

Think about it next time you write a business e-mail at work.

And just so it doesn`t seem like I`m on a soapbox, I`ll end with a suggested e-mail signature which I think everyone should include to lighten the mood.

``Hey - How`s She Hangin Eh``

Fred Art

Manager of IT Services

DorkOrp Int`l

Five Things I Wanted When I was in Grade Six

I wrote this list in the back of my Social Studies notebook in May of the year I was in Grade Six. They were things I was determined to acquire when I had the cash.



1. A 1973 Buick Riviera. My Grade Six teacher Mrs. Page drove one and it was COOL.
What did I eventually ended up with? A 1976 Chrysler New Yorker. It was BIG.


2. A Sony Portable Video Tape recorder. I thought it would be so cool to be able to video stuff and watch it back immediately. My Dad was a big Super 8 film guy - but he would film three minutes and send it off to the developer. It would come back in three weeks.
What did I eventually end up with? Well, just like you, some kind of smart phone that does everything.


4. An electronic organ.



What did I eventually end up with? A 1988 Roland S50 second generation digital sampler - albeit at the end of its working life. Still have it - you have to load samples into it one at a time from single density discs.




4. A Sears triple pick up electric guitar.





What did I end up with? I got a single pick up electric for Christmas in 1975.



Then when I grew up I bought a Washburn knock off of a Gibson 335. Still have it.
5. I also wanted the US out of Vietnam, an American Bicentennial and the Olympics in Montreal. Those things worked out

How To Redefine Price Point

This car dealer seems to use the placeholder "N" to indicate the cost of this Mazda 3. You'll have to reach back to to Grade 11 math to define what the value of "N" is.

(and here, if I were writing one of those marketing blogs that ended with a rhetorical question I would say...)

Can you define YOUR "N"?

(because of course it's that undefined "something" that will make your brand stand out. In this case, however this is just a funny newspaper misprint - and luckily enough - for the hated Mazda 3.)

How to Form an Irrational Opinion

I don't like the Mazda 3. I don't know why, I just don't like it. Never have.

How to Bump Start a 1994 VW Golf

This technique for "bump'starting" a 1994 VW Golf works best under these conditions:

a) You're on a slight downward incline.

b) You're by yourself.

c) Obviously, your 1994 VW Golf must have a standard transmission.

1 - Open the driver's side door of the Golf.

2 - Put the transmission in NEUTRAL.

3 - Release the parking brake.

4 - Turn the ignition to ON.

5 - Standing outside the car, with your shoulder to the door frame, give it a push to get it rolling .

6 - It should start rolling down the incline.

7 - Jump in, depress the clutch and ram home the gear shifter into 2nd gear.

8 - Come on - jump in now, or you`ll never catch up with it.

9 - Jump in - quick! Quick! Jump....

10 -The car will stop when it hits that tree whether you are in it or not.

11 - Call a cab - they will jump start your Golf for $20.